Toeing the red line

ENDURANCE RUNNERS, LIKE ALL ATHLETES, HAVE TO TRAIN HARD TO REACH THEIR GOALS, SAYS DAVID LOWES, BUT HOW HARD SHOULD HARD BE?

- DAVID LOWES

EVERY endurance runner will admit that hard training is a given for improvements to be made. After all, if training was easy then any adaptation – if any – would be minimal. The big question therefore becomes just how hard should hard training be and how frequently should it be at that level?

Firstly, we should think about how improvements are made. Put simply, it’s a process involving adaptation.

If you imagine a graph where we have a horizontal red line which denotes optimal training, anything above that line provides an extra stimulus and anything below is at minimum recovery. That’s where and when adaptation takes place. NB: it’s important to realise that it is in the period when you are not training when your body adapts to the stress of training.

Training specificity is important in terms of directly improving your event performance – do too much aerobic or anaerobic work, for example, and you may not get the results you want. Therefore, a well thought out training plan that has much variety and balance yet is specific and targeted is paramount.

Spending too much time above the red line can spell disaster and, in the same vein, too much time below the line will see improvements grind to a halt as your physiological system is overworked or not stressed enough respectively.

If you want to race at 5min/ mile pace and train continually at 6-7min/mile pace don’t expect any miracles anytime soon!

In a nutshell, you have to do the hard work well outside your comfort zone, yet you must schedule in sufficient rest and recovery for the hard work to take effect.

How to achieve positive adaptation